The Wonder of Paint

I recently got a bonus from Pampered Chef and we were so excited to finally get to paint our house! Here are the before & after pictures!! The difference is amazing. (We already had someone come over and say they thought they pulled in the wrong driveway because it didn't look like our house at all.)

One decade down and many more to come!

Wednesday Brandon turned 11 years old. It seems impossible that he could be that old already. He has definitely caught on to the idea of celebrating his bday by requesting "Bday WEEK Festivities." (I don't know who could have taught him that term... :O)
We complied and spoiled him with extra game time and sweet snacks in the days leading up to Wednesday. Brandon then woke up at 5AM on Wed. like it was Christmas morning and was greeted with chocolate milk, chocolate donuts, and of course presents!
At lunchtime, I got Brandon out of school and took him out to Chilero's Mexican Restaurant where we stuffed ourselves.
Finally, Wednesday night family and friends came to our house for more food and festivities. Brandon was bombarded with warm wishes and generous gifts. You might wonder what would make an 11 year old boy excited.... Here is his list of loot:

1. Nike Golf shoes from his bro
2. Red Rip Stick, FIFA '09 DS game, and Barnes & Noble gift card from his mom & dad
3. Cash from his aunt/uncle in Oregon, his Ritter grandparents, and friends of the family. (He declared that GREEN is his favorite color) I don't know who could have taught him that either! :O)
4. A golf pull cart from his aunt/uncle
5. A handcrafted beautiful bookcase from his Johnson grandparents

Wow...

Brandon is a joy to us! It was a treat to spoil him on his bday because he is thankful and gracious.

Night of Rock

We recently won concert tickets from our favorite radio station Air 1. We got to see Tyler's favorite band, Disciple, Brandon's favorite band, Stellar Kart, my favorite band, Kutless, and another up and coming band. It was a total rock concert. We seriously had to pack ear plugs for the boys. (Scott and I figured we have probably already damaged our ears but we wanted to preserve the boys' ears!) It was an awesome family night and Scott and I were impressed that we could keep up with the boys. When we fell into bed after midnight, our ears were still ringing.

If you have never heard good Christian rock music, check out Air 1. You can find station listings on the website or even listen online if there isn't a signal close to you. It is so refreshing to hear positive news and avoid all the garbage or depressing news on main stream stations. Go to Air1.com.

So, get out your ear plugs; it's Disciple.

Our Two Week Anniversary!

Today marks two weeks since we added a new member to our family.

Believe it or not, we have finally gone DIGITAL! We said goodbye to our beloved rabbit ears for our TV and welcomed a satellite dish. We waited a long time to do this. Even after hearing about what a great deal it was (only $19.99 a month), we still had to sleep on it. We didn't want to get sucked into loving our TV too much.

Scott was convinced the day that we had it installed that we had entered "the EVIL age!" Now that was of course before he found the SOCCER CHANNEL! And today I found old episodes of the Gilmore Girls! Who knew how much I would love my DVR?? There is love in the air on this 2 week anniversary!